in St. Johns yesterday, staff told the city council the deal will ensure the North Portland neighborhood gets the kind of development it wants.

The 14,000 square feet of city-owned land once housed a gas station. It has long been a vacant lot situated square on St. Johns’ main street.

If the Bureau of Environmental Services sold the property at market value, brownfield program manager Jen Bildersee said, the lot might remain empty or become a business that existing residents don’t like. It could have been another 7-Eleven, neighbors suggested on

Instead, if the City Council approves the deal next week, developer Kevin Cavenaugh will create a new kind of mixed-use project, one vetted by a group of St. Johns residents. Cavenaugh plans to build a two-story, seven-building complex on a third of an acre. That’s a relatively short structure compared to the four-, five- and eight-story buildings planned in other up-and-coming neighborhoods.

"There are a lot of greedy buildings being put up in Portland right now," Cavenaugh said. "I’m not liking most of them. I want it to be vibrant. It doesn’t matter how many apartments there are. It matters who the tenants are and what they do.”

plans to open one shop, three restaurants, three offices and six apartments in the buildings. The firm will jigsaw the seven buildings together in a way that creates nine private courtyards and two pedestrian alleys.

Cavenaugh has a few lease agreements in place, though he said he cannot name his prospective tenants yet. St. Johns business owners have met with Cavenaugh’s business partner, Andres Ochoa, to talk about what their firm will bring to the neighborhood.

owner Sarah Anderson said she can’t wait to see new businesses come in -- as long as they’re different from the current selection in St. Johns. The neighborhood has too many coffee shops, Thai restaurants and pizzerias, Anderson said. Residents want variety; she’d like a good pho place or a Lebanese restaurant.

“There’s a lot of people looking at St. Johns and saying, ‘Hey, vintage does well, let’s open a vintage place,’ as opposed to looking at what St. Johns is missing and doing that,” she said.

Anderson said Ochoa seemed committed to bringing new life to St. Johns.

“We tried to work hand in hand with the community here,” Ochoa said. “We understand St. Johns is a unique place, and the last thing we want to do is be a bull in a china shop. We want to do what’s best for everybody involved.”